The Bridge Builders

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The Bridge Builders

• A Look at Chinggis Kahn and the Mongols/Tartars

AP World History. 600-1450
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The Canterbury Tales, 1390Geoffrey Chaucer This
noble king was called Genghis Khan,?Who in his
time was of great renown?That there was nowhere
in no region?So excellent a lord in all
things.?He lacked nothing that belonged to a
king.?As of the sect of which he was born?He
kept his law, to which that he was sworn.?And
thereto he was hardy, wise, and rich,?And
piteous and just, always liked?Soothe of his
word, benign, and honorable,?Of his courage as
any center stable?Young, fresh, and strong, in
arms desirous?As any bachelor of all his
house.?A fair person he was and fortunate,?And
kept always so well royal estate?That there was
nowhere such another man.?This noble king, the
Tartar Genghis Khan.
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Mongol Image

• Middle Ages / Renaissance positive
• Enlightenment (1700s) negative
• Seen as barbarians
• Montesquieu - the most singular people on
  earth.
• Voltaire - wild sons of rapine, who live in
  tents, in chariots, and in the fields. Who
  detest our arts, our customs, and our laws and
  therefore mean to change them all to make this
  splendid seat of empire one vast desert, like
  their own.

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Mongols as a Whole

• No technological break throughs
• No new religions
• Few books and plays
• No new crops or agricultural methods
• Few artifacts and buildings

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What did they build?

• Only thing Mongols built extensively was bridges.
• Why is this significant?

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Chinggis Kahn

• Despite illiteracy, he had modern ideas,
  including
• A professional and mobile army
• A commitment to global commerce
• A secularized system of laws
• Religious tolerance

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Military Might

• Killed all who resisted
• Leveled Baghdad
• 18.4 million estimated killed in China

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Military Might

• Superior military tactics
• Extreme discipline and loyalty
• Used advanced weapons from defeated cultures
• Focused on intelligence gathering, learning
  geography

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Trade

• Nomads understood importance of trade
• Built up roads, extended the Grand Canal in China
• Set up post offices/trading posts
• Protected merchants, gave them a higher status
• Set up merchant associations - ortoghs
• Allowed safe passage to everyone

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Religious Tolerance

• No intention of spreading own religion
• Offered tax benefits to all religious leaders
  (why?)
• Muslims brought to China to help with
  administration

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Bridges

• More Asian products available to Europe
• Europeans travel to Asia, return with great
  stories
• Marco Polo spends 17 years in Mongol court
• His book inspires European imagination

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Bridges

• Portuguese look for quicker route to Asia around
  Africa
• Columbus sails west with Marco Polos journal -
  trying to find Mongol China

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Bridges

• Would Columbus have been inspired to sail the
  ocean blue without the dreams of riches inspired
  by Marco Polos writings?
• Can we give Genghis Kahn and the Mongols credit
  for the Age of Exploration?

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• Much of the information from